All posts by Jay

Name And Tag Needed: Real Estate Trading System

Names + Taglines

Need a name for our real estate and asset trading system. System will teach and allow folks to trade mortgages (paper) assets as well as REOs (real estate owned or houses). Words that can be used as a reference would be applicable here would be: Arbitrage, Assets, Trader / Trading, Profits, Spread, Mortgage, Gravedancing / Gravedancer, Capital, Triage, Bank / Banker / Banking, Desk (as in Trading Desk), Defaulted Loans, and Strategies.

Some ‘sexier’ titles I’ve seen recently come out for other products have been: Offline Arbitrage, Offshore Conquest, and Mass Control (Note: These are Internet Marketing Products, but I like the tone and feel to them).

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Undiscovered Assets
  • Capital Control
  • Arbitrage Dominance
  • Triage To Win

 

Name my Indian Textile Brand

Names + Taglines

I am going to start a exclusive women textiles brand in india i would like to have a name and a tagline. My brand includes ethnic wear and some western wear

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Jay’s Answer: A name and tagline ideally should be connected to your target market. For example, are you selling textiles to: consumers in India, manufacturers in India, manufacturers abroad, etc.? Besides the theme of your brand, who are you targeting? Women of what age?  Women living where? Women earning how much money?

What are you trying to convey with your name/tagline? Are you trying to position yourself as a “new face” in textiles or the “right choice”? How will your new business compare to the many other textile manufacturers (both in India and beyond)?

Here are a some suggestions to get you thinking:

  • Modern Indian Woman Textiles – if the textiles you’re making are targeted for the “modern Indian woman”
  • Woman-Only Textiles – to indicate that these are “for women only”
  • Textiles With A Women’s Eye – a “women’s eye” is a phrase meaning – with details that a woman would appreciate

 

Help Me Name My Personal Training Business

Names + Taglines

I’m starting my personal training business.  I’m going to target overweight family, specifically kids.  I need ideas for a business name and tag line that will appeal to families and motivate the parents to enroll either themselves or the family.

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Jay’s Answer: Congratulations on starting your new business. A name or tagline alone won’t motivate people to become your customers – it takes a lot more than hanging your sign and hoping people will suddenly think, “That’s exactly what I’ve been looking for!”. You want to more narrowly define your target market. For example, where are your clients located? What’s their demographic? Why would they be better coming to you instead of the multitude of other ways they could lose weight?

Let’s start with a name. I’m assuming that your business model will involve people coming to your studio/gym to get your personal training. Here are some suggestions:

  • Fit Kids
  • Fat No More
  • Personally Fit
  • Big Heart

Next a tagline.

  • Personal Fitness Training
  • Play More. Weigh Less. Feel Great.

 

A Tagline for a Life Coach

Names + Taglines

I am starting my own life coach practice called The Joy Fairy. My target audience will be adult entertainment professionals … strippers, legal prostitutes, etc., as well as New Agers and Artists. I live in Las Vegas. The message I want to convey in my tagline is: An unconventional life coach for unconventional people, but I want it to be more pithy, have more attitude, and be more memorable. Cool, sexy, and funny. I have been brainstorming for a week or so, and here are a few I have come up with: Life Coaching for Unconventional Humans,  A Life Coach for Unconventional Humans,  Not Your Parents Life Coach,  Helping Humans Live in The Magic, Better Living Through Fairy Dust,  Creating Better Lives for Humans,  Illuminating New Path for Unconventional Humans,  Life is Hard. Vegas is Crazy. Call The Joy Fairy. , Life Coaching. One Human at a Time.

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Jay’s Answer: Because your business is named something ambiguous, the tagline needs to be very clear. You’d identified who/where you’re targeting, which is great. But what’s missing is the other side – why do THEY want what you’re offering? Why you? What problems/concerns/needs do they have that they’re willing to trade time & money for you to solve?

The taglines you’ve created are all about “unconventional” and “magic” and “fairy”, but ultimately it’s not about the image you’re trying to create, but what tangible benefits you can offer.

A Tagline for a Corporate Training Consultant

Names + Taglines

I am looking for a tagline for my business cards. The name of my business is Grier Consulting Services. Training and Development, Career Development and Corporate Event Planing are the services that I offer. Could you give me some suggestions of Taglines that would work well with my business name?

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Jay’s Answer: Since your business name (“Grier Consulting Services”) doesn’t describe what you do for your target market, the tagline needs to clearly do so.

However, the list of services you’re proposing to offer isn’t narrowly targeted. I would strongly encourage you to clearly articulate who your ideal client is (Where are they located? Industry? Size? Demographic?) and then identify who within the organization you’re trying to appeal to (Human Resources? Marketing?). If you don’t narrow down your focus, you’re going to have a hard time trying to get their attention, since what you’re offering won’t sound like a match for THEM.

If you do so, then a tagline like: “Specializing in Training & Development” clearly states what you’re offering. Even better would be to add for who, as in: “The Small Business Training & Development Specialist”.

Building A New, Improved Product Release Campaign

Publicity

I need a campaign strategy to release a new, improved product based on a well established core story. Where do we start? I have about a six month window to create the image. Educate and inform the public and establish the buying criteria for this release of an established product. This is a release of a product that already has acceptance by an audience. The re-formulated version is entirely “GREEN.” The change in the formulation was brought about by market demand. The first launch was a successful one and the original product still has a strong following. The new release needs a specific marketing plan in order to take advantage of the current popularity of the products efficacy along with the new “GREEN” formulation for previous interested users that pushed back because it was not. I’m wondering how to start marketing the new version.

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Jay’s Answer: Is it true that your prospective clients went elsewhere solely because your product wasn’t “green”? The liked what the product could do for them, the offer was strong, and yet the value of “green” was strong enough that they went to your competitor to purchase their product?

Is it also true that your new formulation is basically identical to the old one, except that it’s now “green”? It’s as long-lasting, effective, similarly priced, and sensory equivalent – just now magically “better for the environment”? Do you have 3rd party independent testing that validates your new claims?

If so, your message is basically, “You asked. We did it. Now Green. Same great product. Just better for the planet.”

In fact, as a company statement, are you discontinuing the old product, because your company values are striving to make better products for the earth? If so, your statement about your product is a great PR opportunity as well.

What Will It Take?

Creative Business Ideas

What Will It Take?

(Photo by Chris Gladis)

There’s a phrase that you used to hear a lot from car salespeople, “What will it take for you to leave with this new car?” The phrase was overused and therefore much-parodied by comedians. However, the underlying thought is timeless for your marketing strategy.

“What will it take?” asks the person looking to purchase something to “show their cards” with the salesperson. Once the salesperson knows what the buyer needs to satisfy their concerns, then it’s a straightforward process to see if their needs match the offering. Respond to your customer’s needs.

However, directly asking the prospect is likely to get a lot of push back (“I’m just looking”) since you haven’t met your prospect “half-way”. If you’ve interviewed many of your previous customers you probably know some key “pain” points – perhaps they’re concerned about their appearance, or safety, or making more money. So instead of making the person feel “different”, show them that others had similar concerns and this is how you satisfied them. By making your prospective customer feel like part of a social group, they feel that their decision is therefore less risky and the “smart” choice.

If you don’t know what will change a “looker” to a “buyer”, you need to do your homework. Why do people purchase from your competition? What would make them want to switch to your offering? How much better is what you’re offering? Can you prove it?

What will it take for you to improve your marketing produce results?

Speak With Passion: Reboot Your Old Presentation

Creative Business Ideas, Publicity, Speak With Passion

Rebooting Old Presentation

(Photo by Scott)

If you’ve been giving the same one or two speeches for awhile, how can you reboot your old presentation into something more passionate? It starts with 2 questions.

  1. Why are you talking about this topic? What’s the goal of giving this speech? What are you trying to achieve? Who specifically do you want to hear your thoughts? What action do you want them to take after hearing you talk? What’s the benefit to them for taking this action?
  2. What personally got you interested in this topic? You could be giving presentations on a number of topics, but somehow you’ve locked into this topic. What sparked your interest? Who first influenced you? What was your life prior to understanding this topic? What was your life afterwards? Who did you share this passion with? What did they think?

Question #2 will help provide you with some stories that your audience will be able to relate to. Remember, they don’t have the knowledge/experience you do, so you need to show them through your senses your “awakening”. The right story will help them see the before/during/after experience and give them a concrete story to remember.

Question #1 will help you tailor your message to your speaking goals. Knowing what you want to impart will help you select the right stories, the right words, and the right imagery. If you want the listener to actively do something, tell them exactly what you want them to do (and why). If this is a speech about learning, ensure you have a succinct summary to make it easy for people to remember and retell the gist of your speech.

No doubt rebooting your old/safe presentation won’t be easy and may feel awkward to you. Be patient. It’s worth it.

Multiply Your Business

Creative Business Ideas

Multiply Your Business

(Photo by Dan Previte)

Are you tired of being on the never-ending business cycle of: create new marketing materials, network, negotiate, get some new clients, and repeat? Does it ever feel that if you take a break from the cycle, you’ll never get any new business? When was the last time you were comfortably able to take a vacation and let your business make money in your absence?

If you’re selling widgets directly to consumers (or giving talks, or writing books, or building furniture, etc.), you only make money when you sell a widget. No sale, no income, no break. While you might enjoy selling the widgets, it’s clear what your future is: spending as much time making the widget as you do selling the widgets. While it’s rewarding to work directly with the people who are buying your widgets, you’ll be stuck selling widgets forever (unless you can increase the profitability of your widget sales).

Since selling one widget is no harder than selling 100 widgets, focus on leveraging your business energies. Instead of writing books, think of become a publisher of books (selling a collection of books to stores to sell). Instead of making movies, become a movie house (selling movies to others). Let others sell your widgets (one-at-a-time). Focus on selling a large number of your widgets for others to sell.

By diversifying into a business-to-business (B2B) sales mentality instead of a B2C (business-to-consumer) mentality, you’ll be able to smooth out your marketing cycles, and more easily make strategic decisions that will improve your bottom line.

Square Peg Marketing?

Creative Business Ideas

Square Peg Marketing

(Photo by Yoel Ben-Avraham)

If you’ve been struggling to market your product or service and are frustrated by your results, consider where the problem might be. You might be trying to sell your square pegs into a community of round holes!

In business marketing, as in much of the world, the 80/20 rule (“the Pareto Principle”) applies: 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your offerings. The key is to focus your efforts on the 20% that works for you. If you’re just starting out, you have no clue where the 20% is. You try new things haphazardly, hoping to get some clients. And if you get one or two, most business owners think, “Aha! I know where my 20% is!” And they stop innovating, they stop trying, and replicate the effort it took to get their initial clients. And in most cases, they fail. The early adopters (people willing to risk their time/money on your offerings) reflect a small subset of the general population. Early adopters are looking for the “next big thing” and tried yours. But they’re likely to quickly be bored by your offering, and are quickly moving on to another new thing, leaving you behind.

What you’re looking for in your marketing are longer-term and numerous results. A few early “wins” with adopters will skew your thinking. You want to find the “sweet spot” of your prospective clients – so be willing to realign your offerings to their needs. If you keep banging away at what initially worked, you’ll be stuck banging that square peg offering into your round holed customer base until one of you gets tired with the other.